Monthly Archives: March 2013

15 In your great mercy, O God, *
answer me with your unfailing help.16 Save me from the mire; do not let me sink; *
let me be rescued from those who hate me and out of the deep waters.17 Let not the torrent of waters wash over me, neither let the deep swallow me up; *
do not let the Pit shut its mouth upon me.18 Answer me, O LORD, for your love is kind; *
in your great compassion, turn to me.”19 Hide not your face from your servant; *
be swift and answer me, for I am in distress.

These nights that I write to you almost happen in a sigh. Days full of frantic efforts stop when I sit down to write. Efforts to sustain my family and move my work forward consume every moment. I never stop moving, never stop talking about my work, never stop taking action. I grapple with the hooks of my insistence, up and up and up. From my place down here, I see the lip of the hole. I keep my eyes on the light, and my sweet one strapped securely to my back. Every nerve and muscle in my body is drawn up in the tense anxiety of waiting, and of working. My goal is in front of me; and I am ceaseless.

I pray. From inside, I hear a voice. “Have faith, have faith. God did not bring you 3000 miles to drop you in the mud. There is a purpose and a plan. Do the next right thing. Keep moving.”

I do. Last week, I announced the release of my Living Hebrew Aleph Bet. I can’t say this with certainty; but, I am fairly sure, there is no other widely circulated Living Hebrew Aleph Bet around. My alphabet reaches out and connects. The natural shape of each animal flows in the shape of the letter. They become one. They are a walking, talking circle of friends. They invite you, “Learn with us.” With them as my partners, we have every reason to succeed.

With passion under my wings, technicalities broke in. My perfect store both on this site and on my portfolio site, www.erikaquiroz.com, fell apart. The sections for placemats (one of my most popular items!), pillows and pacifiers stopped working. Then, as I attempted to fix it, both of my sites went down.

All week long, since the release, I have been beating the streets. I’m talking to friends, making contacts, reaching out. The word of my project is being spread via several media outlets, including this article on the Real Moms Guide at Sheknows.com. If there was a great time for my store to twist on itself and my sites to go down, this is it.

I sat at this desk last night and stared. My screen said “internal Server Error 500″. My insistence had broken it. My determination to fix my own problem had thrown it all into the trash. Hoping to solve my problem, I took out a few quotation marks from the code. Suddenly, my sites were gone.

Damn it, Jim! I’m an artist, not a programmer!

I called my host’s tech support. For forty minutes, I paced outside in the cold. Our house is tiny. My son was asleep. I can’t talk in here when he is sleeping. I paced and I waited, I talked and I tried. When I went to bed, both sites were still down.

This morning, like a miracle, they were both back. Both stores are still imperfect, though. Placemats, pacifiers and pillows still do not display. If you want to see my full line, my direct Zazzle store is your best bet. I will sort out this store issue; but it is going to take some time. I also plan to offer more products outside of Zazzle, so this is definitely a temporary fix.

Besides fielding technical difficulties, I have spent the week in grassroots marketing. What is grassroots marketing? It is this: It is this take-charge-yourself, take-responsibility, tap-into-your-own-resources kind of approach. It is that approach that will make my project a success.

Do you read any blogs, other than this one? Are there any blogs you read that you think might write about my Aleph Bet, or me? Do you know anyone who writes for a print or online publication? Contact them and tell them about me, or give me the contact information and I will do it myself. Be creative. This is a Hebrew Aleph Bet; but consider the whole of the story. Anyone who writes about family, education, single mothers, alternative families, art, community, entrepreneurship, new starts, or any other host of topics would be a good fit for me and my project. Think about it. I bet everyone knows as least one resource that I could pursue.

My project doesn’t end with posters and placemats. My Living Aleph Bet is going to find a publisher. Once it is a board book, stories for each animal will follow. This is a learning series in the making; and more languages will follow this one. Anyone interested in early language education will want to follow my work.

A few feet away, a small voice just spoke in his sleep. Two pink cheeks turned toward me, and an unintelligible sentence ended in the word, “Mama…”. I stopped typing, slipped in beside him, and kissed him back to sleep.

He is the reason my work will succeed. He is the reason I grapple, my insistent hooks pulling us up. Together, we are building the life he needs. It is the life we need. My sweet homeschooled son will have me; and I will have him.

Look out over the lip of the pit; see us reaching up. You are watching the American dream. Be a part of a transformation story that will uplift others and offer hope. Talk about it; help us connect.

Connection, passion and imagination are great keys. Connect in your own lives. Use your imagination. Connect with those around you. Consider the one next to you and see their struggle with patience and compassion. Then, reach out. When we change our relationships we change the world.

It was over a year ago. I sat at my desk in another small room, working like a spider in an untenable web. A friend from my grief group, Joanne, had given me a gift: a feature ad in her Chabad’s annual calendar. I decided to illustrate a few letters of the Hebrew aleph bet in honor of her gift.

I asked my Hebrew-speaking friends for some suggestions for letter/word matches. From that short initial list, I let my imagination go. For me, it was clear. When I looked at Alef, I saw a lion walking through the jungle. When I saw Tsadi, there was a bird in flight. “If I can create these kinds of partnerships for every letter”, I thought, “what an amazing project this could be.”

From the strands of that web, I reached; and I researched. Each letter was pondered over, savored and explored. When the perfect partnership arose, I grabbed it. Each time, a new life was born. One by one, I watched Samach, Yod, Tet and my other animal friends step out to make my acquaintance. I was creating a family.

J stood at my side. “What is its name?” he would ask me. I’d answer, “Ayin”, or “Chuf”, or “Hey”. It became a game. We would say to each other, “Hey, you hippo, Hey” and before I knew it, he knew every letter I had drawn.

I planned an elegant finish, with an elegant release. Before I could draw number 18, a tree split us from the life we knew. Suddenly, there was no time to research letters or animals. Now, it was time to move.

I let my project rest while we reworked the present. I went with it as we moved from church to coffee house to the road. I let the gears of action spin as we docked on a new shore. Then, I picked up the pen. It was time to get back to work.

Vav, Zion, Resh and Mem joined our happy family of animals. I think my hope for the project rings out in Mem’s eyes. He holds the fruit of this great accomplishment, and the seed of our hope for a better start in the glorious west. He grabs your gaze; he requests your participation.

I am an American dream, waiting to happen. I am an entrepreneur who didn’t wait for someone else’s ideas. I used my skill, my resources and my talents; and with them, I created something. Something fun, something useful, something beautiful and something worthwhile came from my desire to be free, and to parent my son. It is the first of many things I plan to offer. In our new life, it is the first step that raises us up.

This past weekend, we nestled with our friends in the woods. In their home, we soaked our clothes, muddied our hands, painted our dreams and nourished our souls. The seeds of what we were seeking when we pulled away in that dark West Virginia morning sparkled at the edges of a brand new life. I watched my son as he rose up within it, and I celebrated.

“Look at the trees!” he cried. “I love being in the forest!” We came from West Virginia. West Virgina is no stranger to trees; but here, in the moist Pacific Coast, the moss-covered branches that cradle the sky are like nothing we’ve ever seen. Green, literally wrapped in life, the air is thick with possibility. Here, we stir the seeds of great change.

I finished my Aleph Bet. Each animal holds its letter and offers itself to a new home. In my Store, I offer prints, posters, pillows, pendants, pacifiers, stickers, cards, shirts, placemats, and I plan to add much more. I also offer custom prints with names spelled out in my animal letters, letter color customized upon request. That option is not yet in my store, but contact me and I will work with you to create it.

You are here, and you are reading this. You know something about our history, our journey, our purpose and our lives. Borrow just one slice of our passion, and pass it on. Help others to know about the things I’ve created, and help my entrepreneurial spirit change our lives.

Go to the Store section of this website to see what I have to offer. Tell your friends and family, and ask them to tell their friends. You easily share fun animal pictures and other inspirational stories. Help us spread the word, and follow along as we go from the struggling faithful to the triumphantly free. Be a part of the miracle.

Peace and Blessings to you all.

John 7: 37-38

37 On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. 38 He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.